Waaaaay too much has happened since we've last spoken. In no specific order: Mardi Gras left me with a broken knee and a broken phone and well... broke, Lady Gaga won like all of the Oscar's ever, I was featured as Yahoo's Blogger of the Week, and we all freaked out over a damn dress. (It's blue and black, let's be real.) Something's totally in the water right now.

When life errs on the crazier side, I crave more simple pleasures. It makes sense really: when my mind is occupied with trying to be a student and a person at the same time, that special compartment where I dream up chicken and waffles cakes and king cake fries sometimes gets lost in the background. Right now, I'm on a major bar kick....

We're three weeks away from Valentine's Day! For those of you who know me pretty well, you'd probably think that I absolutely hate Valentine's Day. At this point, I've convinced myself that I'm probably going to be eternally single and die alone; but really, any holiday that revolves around the consumption of sugar is a great one in my eyes.

Valentine's Day has always been one of my favorites. One of my absolute favorite memories of elementary school was coming home from school with a huge box full of candy and valentines every year. Seriously, why did we stop doing that after like 5th grade? Okay, yeah, maybe that would've been a little discomforting at my all-boys high school but damn, sometimes a boy just wants some chocolate. Can we please bring that back? Sure I'm a senior in college, but who wouldn't want to receive One Direction valentines (WITH STICKERS!!!!), candy, and some freshly baked brownies? Nobody.

Over the past few years, I've always made an effort to do something fun on Valentine's Day. Usually, this just means going to dinner with a few of my friends and then gorging on way too much chocolate because you know, it's always nice to forget about your loneliness by stuffing your face with fifteen mini Reese's hearts!

This year, I teamed up with my friends at West Elm to create three different Valentine's Day recipes for you to make for your boyfriend, girlfriend, best friend, ...yourself. Make sure to tune back in the next two Fridays for some delicious recipes!

It’s undeniable — Valentine’s Day is synonymous with roses and chocolate. Though the two are often gifted together, most people aren’t eating their roses.

To prove your love in the best way possible (i.e., food), whip up a batch of these sinfully fudgy brownies, topped with chocolate ganache, crushed pistachios, and candied roses.

I find that the thought of eating flowers usually sends people into a bit of a panic. Rest assured: yes, roses are edible. And no, you will not die. For this recipe, please use organic roses — pesticides and other chemicals are not very romantic, in my opinion.

It's been forever and a day since I've posted a recipe on here and before I waltz back into the room unannounced, let me explain. Soooo.... college. Yeah, it's absolutely miserable right now. My Thanksgiving break was insane, considering that I was pretty much in charge of the whole Thanksgiving dinner and cleaning my totally destroyed kitchen.On top of that, all of my friends were home and I went overboard on making up for the past 4 months of extremely limited social interaction. If that wasn't enough, I have a theory that all of my professors met and divulged a plan to assign every single paper and project due the following week, obviously in an effort to make my life a living hell because they have some sort of personal vendetta against me.

Peppermint Bark - the classic.

So no, I haven't just disappeared and been laying in bed this whole time, checked out from the world. (Oh God, how I wish that was the case.) I've been living the past two weeks of finals on edge, having panic attacks in the middle of the library, bullshitting my final papers, and avoiding studying at all costs. Needless to say, it's been rough a few weeks. But alas, I've survived and only two finals are separating me from my Christmas break.

It's been really upsetting, because Christmas is totally my thing. When I say that I have actually cried because it wasn't Christmas, I'm not lying. (Yes, I really am that overdramatic in real life too.) The worst part about all of this? I've had multiple Christmas-themed recipes photographed and waiting to be posted since Thanksgiving, but no time to sit down and actually post them. You know what that means? It's gonna get all types of Christmassy up in here until the 25th.

For some reason, people always ask me for bark recipes around the holidays. (I wonder why anybody would want chocolate right now? Crazy people!) As much as I want to be the sarcastic asshole that I sometimes am and say something along the lines of "you do know that chocolate bark is literally just melted chocolate with random things from your pantry thrown on top of it," I restrain myself. To make up for my sassiness (or maybe just reinforce it), I'm providing not one, but four different recipes for literally just melted chocolate with not-so-random things from your pantry thrown on top of it.

Peppermint Bark

12 oz dark chocolate, chopped

12 oz white chocolate, chopped

1 tsp. peppermint extract

6 candy canes, crushed

Directions

In a microwave, heat the dark chocolate in 30 second intervals, stirring in between, until smooth. Pour the melted dark chocolate onto a sheet pan lined with wax paper and refrigerate until set, about 30 minutes.

Melt the white chocolate using the same heating process. Once melted, mix in the peppermint extract and stir to combine. Pour the melted white chocolate over the dark chocolate layer. Top with crushed candy canes. Return to fridge to set before breaking into pieces to serve.

White Chocolate Gingerbread Bark

12 oz white chocolate, chopped

6 gingersnap cookies, crushed

red hots

gumdrops, cut in half

christmas sprinkles!

Directions

In a microwave, heat the white chocolate in 30 second intervals, stirring in between, until smooth. Pour the melted chocolate onto a sheet pan lined with wax paper and cover with the crushed gingersnaps, red hots, gumdrops, and sprinkles. Refrigerate until set.

Hot COCOA BARK

12 oz milk chocolate, chopped

1/4 cup mini marshmallows

1 tablespoon hot cocoa mix

mini white chocolate chips (optional)

DIRECTIONS

In a microwave, heat the milk chocolate in 30 second intervals, stirring in between, until smooth. Pour the melted chocolate onto a sheet pan lined with wax paper and cover with the mini marshmallows and white chocolate chips. Sprinkle the bark with the hot cocoa mix. Refrigerate until set.

Cranberry Pistachio Chocolate Bark

12 oz milk chocolate, chopped

1/4 cup dried cranberries

1/4 cup roasted salted pistachios

mini white chocolate chips (optional)

Directions

In a microwave, heat the milk chocolate in 30 second intervals, stirring in between, until smooth. Pour the melted chocolate onto a sheet pan lined with wax paper and cover with toppings. Refrigerate until set.